you resource for all things shoegaze & dream pop.

17 October 2013

In
2010, Jinsen Liu of Boston psychedelic/shoegaze band 28 degrees taurus revived both
the underground spirit and twice-yearly tradition of 90s Boston festival Deep Heaven, giving birth
to Deep Heaven Now, a showcase and festival home for what Jinsen calls Boston’s
“mega deep talent pool” of psychedelic, ambient, experimental, and shoegaze
artists as well as select out-of-town guests.

The
eighth edition of Deep Heaven Now takes place this coming weekend at two venues
off Somerville’s Union Square, Precinct and PA’s Lounge. A $10 ticket gives
access to both venues for that day. Among the festival’s visiting dignitaries
this fall are WTSH super-favorites Is/Is, Brief Candles, The Stargazer Lilies,
and Dead Leaf Echo. Visuals will be provided by Joe Turner and Joe Beaton.

We
recently caught up with Jinsen for a session of Q&A about Deep Heaven Now. Ana
Karina DaCosta, Jinsen’s partner in 28 degrees taurus, who provides Jinsen with
input and moral support for the festival as well as handling many details,
chimed in at one point as well.

Can you tell us a little
bit about the 90s history of Deep Heaven? Did you get to attend the festival in
those days, maybe as a kid? How did you learn about it? I
was in attendance for several of the Deep Heaven festivals in the 90s and
that’s what made a lasting enough impression on me as a kid that made me want
to revive it later on. I heard about it through word of mouth and random
posters around Boston for the events that happened from time to time. I think
there were about nine to ten of these back in the late 90s and they always had
great acts.

What inspired you to
revive Deep Heaven in 2010? I
always kept the spirit of the original Deep Heavens in my heart as a community
and artistic ideal but it was also attending some of the All Tomorrow’s Parties
festivals with the 2 stage format and vibe that they had. I wanted to combine
them.

What is the relationship
between Deep Heaven Now and your music project, 28 degrees taurus? Which came
first? 28
degrees taurus came in 2005…that definitely came first. We’d been going a few
years and finally felt the time and place and time period was right for us to
host and revive the event. The scene was good locally, regionally and
nationally and there seemed to be a spirit in the air that needed to be
captured and made cohesive.

Ana Karina DaCosta: I just remember Jinsen
telling me that he was going to start a festival, so I said, good for you. You
should. I didn’t want to be too tied to it because Jinsen is capable of
anything he puts his mind to and he shares so much with me already that I
wanted the festival to be his success every time independent from his and my
friendship. He is a grateful student to his local predecessors and respects
them a lot. It’s a nice thing that he does.

Did the first Deep
Heaven Now that you ran go smoothly? Were there hassles, surprises? How was it
received? It
went surprisingly well because it was a first one and because we didn’t expect
anything from it. It got a lot of press and was received really well with
surprisingly few hassles.

Has attendance grown
over the time span that you’ve been doing the festival?

Attendance
has remained steady mostly because instead of getting big national acts I tend
to focus on little to moderately known local to regional ones because I think
people are always looking for something new.

What have you learned
from doing the festival? That
there’s a community out there if you’re willing to take the time to find
it.

How do you handle the
complicated logistics and hectic nature of working with all those artists and
putting together a complex two-day event? What kind of help do you have? I
use the Force…And have very good lieutenants in the two door people handling
the administration of the event as well as great sound and video people.

Who are some of your
favorite people, bands, and artists that you’ve met through doing the festival? Too
many great people and bands to name. Everyone was all part of the overall
picture of each unique event. It’s one of those things that you just had to be
there.

Can you give us a sort
of mission statement for Deep Heaven Now, a sense of what motivates the
project? To
give people into the shoegaze/psych/ambient/experimental rock/pop/noise genres
a place to go to where they feel they belong and can find other like-minded
people.

Can you give us a few
highlights of the upcoming Deep Heaven Now 8? I
told myself that I wouldn’t do an event unless the local talent pool was deep
enough to turn over each time and offer something new. There’s something about
Boston that has so many special bands that inspire each other that new bands
and sounds keep popping up. All the out of town acts like Is/Is (MN), Heaven
(NY), Dead Leaf Echo (NY), Stargazer Lilies (NY), and Brief Candles (WI) will
be really special highlights too.